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Film review: The Turin Horse’s sole form of entertainment consists of a father and daughter sitting at a window watching the leaves rustle by but director Béla Tarr transforms these sparsest of elements into a remarkable experience.

The Turin Horse is Hungarian director Béla Tarr’s final film before retirement

Those awaiting Amour, Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or-garlanded study of old age, will get a bracing kick from doomy Hungarian director Béla Tarr’s final film before retirement, which depicts frailty, suffering and slow decline.

Inspired by an anecdote said to have driven philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche potty (or pottier), here are six days in the life of an ageing, one-armed farmer and his caring, compassionate daughter, who eke out an existence on a storm-blasted plain where food is limited to one boiled potato a night. Their sole form of entertainment consists of sitting at a window watching the leaves rustle by.

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Yet Tarr is unmatched at drawing the viewer into these grimly forbidding environments. Long, detailed takes – count ’em: just 30 shots in 146 minutes – allow us to register what happens when the couple’s routines begin to go awry, sorely stretching their reserves; the farmer’s stoic horse and the mocking, musical gusts rattling the stable doors become supporting players in a timeless, quite possibly apocalyptic struggle. Tarr transforms these sparsest of elements into a remarkable experience.